1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a storage medium having an information storage block storing information and an electronic circuit block processing information, for example, an electronic-circuit mounting optical disk (hereinafter, this is called an intelligent disk (ID)), and to a speech-synthesizing apparatus synthesizing speech on the basis of information stored in the storage medium and controlled by the electronic circuit block.
2. Background Art
Conventional speech-synthesizing apparatus play back speech by connecting sounds from a machine-word database storing phonemes in waveforms and a sound source database storing sounds extracted from the corrected sounds. Recently, since the study of the sound source database has proceeded, it becomes possible to reproduce sounds made to imitate the voice of a specific person.
Nevertheless, it becomes necessary to prepare various types of sound sources depending on states of connecting sounds even in order to generate the same sound so as to play back a more characteristic voice. Therefore, it becomes necessary to have huge amounts of data, and hence the present approach is only used for demonstration and not put to practical use.
The present invention provides a speech-synthesizing apparatus that resolves conventional defects, described above, and synthesizes various types of words and voices, such as a dialect, on the basis of more compact databases, and a storage medium that has an electronic circuit making the speech-synthesizing apparatus feasible. Furthermore, the present invention also provides a computer system including the above-described speech-synthesizing apparatus, for example, a car navigation system and the like.
In order to solve this task, the storage medium of the present invention has an information storage block storing information and an electronic circuit block for processing information. Furthermore, the medium is characterized in that the information storage block stores at least parameters for controlling speech synthesis in an external apparatus, and the electronic circuit block has means for selecting the parameters corresponding to information to be speech-synthesized. Here, the information storage block further stores the information to be speech-synthesized. In addition, the information storage block further stores a voice database to be used in speech synthesis. Furthermore, the storage medium is an optical disk.
In addition, a speech-synthesizing apparatus of the present invention includes a storage medium having an information storage block for storing information and an electronic circuit block for processing information. The apparatus is characterized in that the information storage block of the storage medium stores at least parameters for controlling speech synthesis in an external apparatus, and the electronic circuit block has means for selecting the parameters corresponding to information to be speech-synthesized. Here, the information storage block further stores the information to be speech-synthesized. In addition, the information storage block further stores a voice database to be used in speech synthesis.
A speech-synthesizing apparatus of the present invention is characterized in comprising discriminating means for judging whether or not a storage medium having an information storage block storing information and an electronic circuit block processing information is inserted, and speech synthesizing means for synthesizing speech by using the storage medium at the time when the storage medium is inserted and for synthesizing speech without using the storage medium at the time when the storage medium is not inserted. The storage medium is an optical disk.
In addition, a computer system of the present invention includes a speech-synthesizing apparatus. Furthermore, the computer system is characterized in that the speech-synthesizing apparatus includes a storage medium having an information storage block for storing information and an electronic circuit block for processing information. Furthermore, the system is characterized in that the information storage block of the storage medium stores at least parameters for controlling speech synthesis in an external apparatus, and the electronic circuit block of the storage medium has means for selecting the parameters corresponding to information to be speech-synthesized. The storage medium is an optical disk.
In addition, a car navigation system of the present invention includes a speech-synthesizing apparatus. Furthermore, the car navigation system is characterized in that the speech-synthesizing apparatus includes a storage medium having an information storage block for storing information and an electronic circuit block for processing information. Furthermore, the car navigation system is characterized in that the information storage block of the storage medium stores at least parameters for controlling speech synthesis in an external apparatus, and the electronic circuit block of the storage medium has means for selecting the parameters corresponding to information to be speech-synthesized. The storage medium is an optical disk.
The present invention can provide a speech-synthesizing apparatus for synthesizing various types of voices, such as a dialect, and words, on the basis of more compact databases, and a storage medium that has an electronic circuit making the speech-synthesizing apparatus feasible. Furthermore, the present invention also provides a computer system, including the speech-synthesizing apparatus, such as a car navigation system.